{"id":18111,"date":"2023-03-17T21:49:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-18T01:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=18111"},"modified":"2023-03-17T21:49:31","modified_gmt":"2023-03-18T01:49:31","slug":"n-y-post-private-federal-censorship-machine-targeted-true-misinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/17\/n-y-post-private-federal-censorship-machine-targeted-true-misinformation\/","title":{"rendered":"N.Y. Post: Private-federal censorship machine targeted TRUE \u2018misinformation\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Post, March 18, 2023<\/h3>\n

Private-federal censorship machine targeted TRUE \u2018misinformation\u2019<\/a><\/h1>\n
\n
By<\/p>\n
James Bovard<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Did you make any \u201cworrisome jokes\u201d about the Biden administration\u2019s proposal to send agents door-to-door to browbeat people to get COVID vaccines? Then you were a public enemy guilty of spreading dangerous disinformation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did you ask questions about COVID policy? You were guilty of a tactic \u201ccommonly used by spreaders of misinformation to deflect culpability<\/a>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did you complain to anyone that vaccine passports violated your liberty? You were deluded, if not depraved, and guilty of propelling a deceptive \u201canti-vaccination narrative about the loss of rights and freedoms.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your tax dollars at work: These are the bizarre revelations from the latest and perhaps funniest Twitter Files from Matt Taibbi.<\/p>\n

Last week, House Democrats pounded Taibbi<\/a> as a \u201cso-called journalist,\u201d a hypocrite, a threat to the peace and a stooge for Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

Now, Taibbi has settled scores with \u201cThe Great Covid-19 Lie Machine<\/a>,\u201d exposing the machinations of federal contractors spurring social-media companies to censor Americans who doubted COVID decrees.<\/p>\n

The latest Twitter Files installment focuses on Stanford University\u2019s Virality Project, which federal agencies bankrolled<\/a> to engage in \u201cdetecting and mitigating the impact of false and misleading narratives related to COVID-19 vaccines.\u201d The Virality Project, partnering with other federal contractors, sent weekly \u201canti-vax disinformation\u201d reports to Twitter and other social media companies.<\/p>\n

Mike Benz, president of the Foundation for Freedom Online, notes that the project was \u201cdeputized by [Homeland Security] to censor millions of . . . opinions . . . about COVID.\u201d<\/p>\n